Anyone else feelin' like me?

[Dagio]

Quote: Originally Posted by judgejudy

The majority of folks around here Tucson at least, never cared about the Cardinals because they've never been good.

Michael Bidwill said that only about 1,500 of all season tickets sold were from Tucson, so that doesn't surprise me. Cardinals fans are much more likely to be from the Phoenix/Glendale area. I've personally followed the team since the Kent Graham days (you'd have to be a fan to know that name).

As far as fan support, yes, there are a lot of Cowboys/Bears/Packers fans here, but Cards fans do exist. The Cardinals have sold out every home game since the new stadium opened up in 2006. Nobody went to the games at Sun Devil Stadium for two reasons: the team was awful, obviously, but I think the more likely reason was that nobody wanted to sit on metal benches at 1 PM when it's 110 degrees. And while they had trouble selling out the Falcons playoff game, so too did Minnesota, and I don't see too many people questioning their fan loyalty. The more likely explanation is the economy.

[J0nnD0ugh]

Quote: Originally Posted by Squint

Your issue is that you are looking at the situation in a vacuum. The media pronounced the Cardinals dead before they even took the field against Atlanta. Nearly every outlet questioned whether or not they even belonged in the playoffs, not to mention they were underdogs in every one of their playoff games. You mention the Dbacks pulling a lot of fans to their games, but they've been a good team and even won a World Series. I think you should try to take a step back, look at the situation from a different perspective, then reassess.

I don't think so. Media predicitons should have nothing to do w/whether the fans come to the game. And when you've never hosted a playoff game for 60+ seasons, there should be some buzz around your franchise.

[mgoblue]

Quote: Originally Posted by Misfit

The Cardinals organization has made it an impossible team to root for, I can't blame the fans for not getting sucked into Playoff fever initially given that no one thought they should even be there. The team needs to convince its fan base that its for real for them to willingly climb aboard. We saw the same thing with the Rays this past baseball season.

Plus the team doesn't have that long of a history in Arizona, it takes time to build up that fan base and fan passion. You can't expect a team that's been here since 1988 to have a rabid fan base like Cleveland...

As for the wild card weekend, the team had been playing completely atrocious to end the season, I wouldn't have wanted to pay to go to a game either at that point.

I'm a Lions fan for life (sadly), but living in Phoenix now, and I'll root for the Cardinals when they're not playing the Lions, but I don't have the passion for the team. You can't expect people who grew up here as Cowboys or whatever team fans to automatically be emotionally invested in the Cardinals when the franchise moved. This Super Bowl will go a long way towards making a generation of kids to be Cardinal fans for life.

[Vince]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dagio

Michael Bidwill said that only about 1,500 of all season tickets sold were from Tucson, so that doesn't surprise me. Cardinals fans are much more likely to be from the Phoenix/Glendale area. I've personally followed the team since the Kent Graham days (you'd have to be a fan to know that name). As far as fan support, yes, there are a lot of Cowboys/Bears/Packers fans here, but Cards fans do exist. The Cardinals have sold out every home game since the new stadium opened up in 2006. Nobody went to the games at Sun Devil Stadium for two reasons: the team was awful, obviously, but I think the more likely reason was that nobody wanted to sit on metal benches at 1 PM when it's 110 degrees. And while they had trouble selling out the Falcons playoff game, so too did Minnesota, and I don't see too many people questioning their fan loyalty. The more likely explanation is the economy.

That's the same Kent Graham who was QB for the G-Men before Kerry Collins, no?

[Dagio]

Yeah, I forgot about that. Maybe Stoney Case would've been a better example.

[SPTO]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dagio

Yeah, I forgot about that. Maybe Stoney Case would've been a better example.

Too bad you don't go back to Neil Lomax. Now there was a darn good QB. Too bad injuries ruined his career.

[The C]

I'm rooting for the Cards because their owner was wearing a bow-tie. He rules!

[RockinDaMike]

To the OP, I understand your opinion. Arizona is full of bandwagon fans, i'll admit it because I lived here for almost 8 years.

A lot of people lost their jobs, the holidays just got over, the Cards not doing so great at the end of the season are some factors why they couldn't sell out the first game.

People here are confused, they aren't sure what Cardinals team this is. They didn't even have their own stadium until 3 years ago, so this team has always been not Arizona's team.

It's hard to understand if you've never sat in Sun Devil Stadium at 1 o clock in the afternoon sitting on metal seats at 110 degrees getting your *** kicked for 5 years like I have. Most people don't want to go through that to watch a losing team. The Cardinals were always looked at as a borrowed team.

Especially if your team wasn't trying to win. The Bidwells weren't spending money, and they been wanting their own stadium since 1988. The politicians finally got it right and built Cardinal Stadium. Since then it has turned around and you'll see that Arizona fans will turn around too.

Having your own home makes a difference and not many people can understand that because every other team in the NFL had their own stadium the start.

Whoever lives here can agree that you hardly even know any Native Arizonans. Everyone here is from somewhere else including myself, so they didn't grow up loving the Cards, the Cards had to earn the love from its new people.

But to not say we deserve it is flat out wrong.